Joel Book was at Brandworks University 2009 to remind us that, despite the barrage of new technologies facing marketers in a Web 3.0 world, email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to quickly spark conversation and jumpstart engagement with your brand. As the Director of eMarketing Education at ExactTarget, Book’s theory on the importance of email comes from more than 30 years of experience in database marketing.
According to Book, consumers are now controlling the message, and a new approach to media requires contributing to the conversation and investing in capabilities that bridge the gap between media, creative, and brand strategy. He stated that if you do nothing more to market your brand, you must at least focus on three core tasks:
- Focus on search optimization in order to attract consumers to your brand and product
- Focus on honing your Web site to engage visitors and identify what their needs are
- Focus on using the information you gathered about visitors to your Web site to create email marketing materials that will serve your customer and their personalized needs
In a conversation economy, “The winning brand demonstrates the ability to better serve the customer,” Book said. In order to do this, Joel stressed the importance of using your Web site to glean important information about those who visit the site.
“Web sites are the hub of marketing,” said Book. “Everything we do (events, direct mail, search) culminates with the target visiting the Web site.”
Once you have attracted someone to your Web site through search or word-of-mouth, Book believes that email can help to move the prospect through the consideration and evaluation stages, all the way to purchase.
Book went on to cite examples of the most effective email marketing conversation starters from major companies, including using personalized coupons, triggered alerts, personalized emails through content management systems, bar coded coupons, and text capture. All of these strategies are meant to leverage information gained on Web sites, generate leads, increase traffic to online and offline stores, and inspire conversation that ultimately leads to a purchase.
A common thread throughout the conference, Joel ended by imparting his words of wisdom to survive the next generation of marketing tactics: “Stay curious, stay informed, and stay passionate.”
